Miles Starforth

The club, without the banned Jonjo Shelvey, yesterday lost top spot in the Championship.

Jonjo doesn’t win games by himself. There’s still another 10 players out there that do the job and help the team.

Isaac Hayden

Brighton and Hove Albion lead the division by two points after beating Queens Park Rangers 3-0 at home.

Newcastle were beaten 1-0 by Sheffield Wednesday at St James’s Park on Boxing Day. And Rafa Benitez’s side missed the influence of Shelvey, who has four more games of his suspension for racially abusing an opponent still to serve.

However, Hayden, Shelvey’s midfield partner, says the absence of Shelvey can’t be used as an excuse.

“People are always going to say ‘if Jonjo was playing’,” said Hayden

“But at the end of the day it’s a squad game. Jonjo doesn’t win games by himself. There’s still another 10 players out there that do the job and help the team.

“There’s no getting away from it. Jonjo is a good player and he’s been very important for us this season, but there’s no reason to use that as an excuse that because he’s not playing, we shouldn’t be able to win games or dominate games.

“We’re not looking for that as an excuse. Jack (Colback) has come in and he hasn’t played in a while. I thought he ran his socks off today and tried his best.

“At the end of the day the only thing you can do as players is try your best. Everyone did that.

“We’re not robots. We can’t play 100% every single game Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday. It’s impossible.

“We’re disappointed, but, as the manager said after the game, I think we need to learn how to draw games rather than lose them.”

United were beaten by second-half goal from visiting captain Glenn Loovens.